9 Reasons Why Your Website’s Conversion Rate is Below Expectations

It isn’t uncommon for even eCommerce sites with good traffic to experience unexpectedly low sales numbers, because high traffic doesn’t automatically equate to high sales. Now the question is, why is it happening? Your traffic stats are showing good numbers and you have a good product, so why aren’t those visitors converting? Depending on which site we are talking about, the answer will vary, so here is a list of nine issues that are usually responsible for low conversion rates.

Poor First Impression

There’s a saying that “First impression is the last impression” and while its appropriateness in case of human interactions is debatable, it’s very much apt for websites. A potential customer or even a first time customer can have a bad impression of the site because of the following reasons.

The piece of information or product that they were looking for was not available on arrival, in spite of the link which they followed being suggestive that it would be there

The landing page looks outdated and ugly

The menus are confusing and hard to navigate

Unavailability of filters, sorting and other editable search parameters

Inefficient search engine; people make typos all the time, so your search engine should be able to auto predict or correct them internally to show most closely matched results.

Lack of a dynamic home page; the home page should regularly be updated with new offers, suggested products, new merchandise, etc.

Poor Customer Identification

Knowing who your potential customers are and targeting them methodically is the key to maintaining any successful online business. Therefore, if the majority of people visiting your website aren’t really buying anything, this means either you are marketing to the wrong kind of audience or your initial customer identification itself was wrong. Reconsider your marketing strategies and try to pinpoint your resources towards the right audience.

You Are Not Listening to Your Customers

We are doing business in a time when the customer is truly in-charge, so you need to listen to what they want more than anything else. Even if you think that your services or products are top notch, they won’t sell as much if the customers don’t want them. Plan, launch and market products and services that match what your target audience is looking for. Make the best of both web analytics and social media tools to find out more about the ongoing trends and demands that are specific to your audience. Try to separate your target customers into smaller groups based on their demands, priorities, wishes, needs, etc. and then design products and marketing strategies unique to each group.

Bad Mobile Optimization

It is common knowledge that smartphones have become the more preferred mode of surfing, searching and shopping now, so you need to make sure that your site supports Android and iOS devices as well. If the site looks weird or becomes unresponsive on a mobile platform, people are going to move away from it. That’s not only an immediate loss of sale, but a loss of the customer as well because that’s how the people who visit your site from their mobiles will remember your site; incompatible with the device they use the most to shop.

Poor Quality Images

Everything needs to look sharp on a site, especially the images. At a time when even basic smartphones are starting to come with Full HD displays, you just cannot settle for images that are not super sharp and vibrant. Besides, blurry, unclear or pixelated photos of your products immediately convey a message of cheapness and shady business. Hire a professional photographer if you need to, but every image on your site needs to look good because it plays a huge part in conversion.

Lack of a Clear and Defined Call-to-Action Button

Even when you get everything right, it’s quite possible that you might be losing out on sales because your customers don’t know how to proceed. Of course, they could find it if they look for it, but given the level of competition out there, all it takes is a second’s confusion and you have lost the sale. Make sure that your call-to-action buttons are big, bold and well-placed, especially on the landing page.

Shipping Costs are Too High

Studies show that a lot of people leave from the checkout page after finding out the cost of shipping. You can tackle this situation by working out a deal with your courier service and offering free shipping to your customers. Of course, it cannot really be free and the shipping costs will come out of your profit margin, but the narrower profit margin may not matter if you see significantly increased sales because of it. Do not forget to mention the term, “Free Shipping” right on the product page, if you are offering it. Alternatively, you can include the price of shipping and show the combined cost as the final cost at the product page itself. Although you are still charging the customer for shipping, this has a different psychological effect as the customer doesn’t feel like he is having to pay extra or is being duped by a lower price tag which suddenly increases at the checkout page.

Your Website is Not Trusted

It may not even be your fault, but when it comes to online shopping, people don’t trust sites easily, especially the ones that have not been in the business long enough. In order to make visitors trust you, keep the following points in mind.

Have a section for real customer reviews and not fake ones

Include your original office address and contact details on the site

Incorporate trust seals or badges from the likes of McAfee, Norton, Best of the Web, BBB Accredited, etc.

Avoid annoying and spammy marketing strategies

Lack of Remarketing/Retargeting Strategies

The people that are visiting your website and leaving it without spending their money on anything are not lost causes because a large percentage of them can eventually be turned into paying customers if you have a sound remarketing strategy in place. People will not be inclined towards buying from a site they visit for the first time, so you need to make sure that they come back again. I was looking for a new TV set on Amazon before Christmas and right after I left and opened my Gmail, there was an ad waiting for me there, alongside an email in the Promotions tab. As you can guess, both had something to do with new TV sets and upcoming Christmas offers! This is one of the most effective digital marketing strategies out there, so you better be using it.

As you can see, the problems that are probably keeping your site from reaching the sales numbers that it should are quite a few and varied. Unfortunately, this isn’t even the whole list. The good news is that innovative software like OptinMonster‘s conversion optimization features help you in detecting and taking care of just about any problem that might be impeding your sales, including the ones on this list. It’s a service that has tools and features dedicated solely towards lead generation and increasing sales by converting incoming traffic into paying customers. Not that you cannot iron out the wrinkles on your own, but it helps to have a service by your side that’s designed and engineered to increase ecommerce sales.

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